My mother had several plant collections, she collected rare alpine plants, most of which were 2 to six inches tall, and I never did appreciate them, but I loved her Primula collection, odd gilded Victorian primroses, hose in garter prims, Japanese primroses, drumsticks and species. My first love in my own garden was the Lily, I loved the trumpet and oriental lilies for their rich deep scent. I lived with more than 200 different modern rosebushes for five years and only one was fragrant Double Delight, and I could not stand the gawky bare limbed growth habit of those H.T.s and Florries. THEN LUanne changed my life with one suggestion "since your'e looking for fragrance why don't you try growing Old Garden Roses ? I did and never looked back. I was enchanted to know that I could and would grow the white 'Rose of York' and the Lancaster Red Rose, cloned from descendants from the same plants that bloomed in medieval Europe. The white Musk rose that Shakespeare wrote so sweetly of, is in my garden now about to bloom. The history and mystery of Old Roses endears me to them, I love knowing that I see roses blooming that I grow the white rose of York, known since the 1400's in England, and that white rose and the red rose of Lancaster was likely to have been seen by both Shakespeare and the Tudor family back when knights fought in tournaments, and some people truly believed that unicorns might exist, the wild eglantine one sees in Queen Elizabeth 1's portraits, painted in the 1500's, are a symbol of virginity and I have held the wild eglantine in my hand, so small and frail and perfect, and smelled the welcome scent of its leaves on a moist breeze. - the rare and only yellow garden rose, brought from the middle east, seen in the paintings of the dutch masters was so rare in the 17th century that one painter had to wait months for a yellow rose bloom to appear in the marketplace, so he could fulfill his patrons request for a yellow rose in a still life. The many Tea roses blooming in my California garden, and the Banksiae have ancestors in China, and I would love to see them all in their native habitat. I love roses best with companions, the photo posted recently with hollyhocks and red Valerian in profusion with one Le Vesuve in the center is my idea of high beauty; lush colorful companions with a queen in the middle. O, Splendor, O, Joy!!! The leaves,up to 15 leaflets upon one stem, fern shaped leaves of Scotch Burnets, pleated rugosa folaige, the scent of the Incense Rose leaves, more strongly scented than many a flower of a modern rose, the flagon shaped hips of Alba Semi Plena, and millions of R. moyessi hips, hips as large as cherry tomatos on Magnifica rugosa, tiny sprays of black hips an ornament many Spinosissima roses, the lush grow of de la Grifferaie' blue-green leaves of the Alba roses, pretty arching growth of a pegged Hybrid Perpetual Ulrich Brunner fils' , and many scents of the different rose classes, , classic Damask, to the sexy scent of Tea roses has opened a world to me that I could not dream to comprehend before I knew of any rose other than 'Peace'. -and best of all, the people I meet at Old Rose events, and here on gardenweb that share their love of roses with me. Thank you all for sharing your beautiful writing, Lux

The sheer impossibility of home cultivation is what attracts me to my favourite fern varieties. I love cloud forest ferns most of all - think 'tropical rainforest' but at much higher altitude. Maybe up to 4000 metres above sea level - practically a mountain top, but still recognisably 'tropical'. Swathed in mist all the time - so permanently humid - the intense equatorial light filtered by the vapour clouds and with very cool night time temperature drops, cloud forests are the perfect environment for tens of thousands of orchid species and many, many ferns. Almost impossible to replicate for us - perhaps a well designed terrarium can just about give you the edge, but the ventilation and the temperature drop are still fiendishly difficult to simulate realistically. Mount Kinabalu, in northern Borneo, has to be the last word in this kind of pristine tropical cloud forest habitat - and it's home to the spidery Cibotium arachnoideum tree fern. That's my dream fern, my fantasy. A HUGE Cibotium arachnoideum fern, dripping with morning dew. Dream on... Steve - Brighton, Sussex Coast, UK

Well, I love them all, but right now I'd have to pick the new Petite Plum that I bought and planted a month or so ago. I have it planted in front of a white climbing iceberg rose (rose is climbing the fence behind it). The water needs aren't the same but I can adjust the sprinkler head to give more water to the rose rather than to the buddleia. So far I really like the combo. Just wish the rose would bloom a bit more but it's still young so i'll be patient. : Another buddleia I love is Honeycomb. It has yellow blooms and is slightly fragrant. Mine seems to want to sprawl a bit but they're easy to keep cut back so I'd still recommend it. I grow Nanho Blue, as well. It blooms nearly all year for me and, extremely drought tolerant and has a nice fragrance. Btw, did you know they make nice cut flowers? I like to use them in a mixed arrangement with shasta daisies, rudbekia and roses, of course. : ) Have fun choosing one. You can't go wrong with them - such an easy care plant, which is what cottage is all about. Diana

I have 10 Stamile cultivars in my yard, two of them are new and have not bloomed yet. So far, my favorites are: Wish Fulfillment - an oldie, but every year it puts out many, many large, frilly, gold-edged, red blooms, and I like reds - - you'll see that in my other picks! All Fired Up - Bright and it blooms and blooms. Last year, it started in May and rebloomed until the last bloom was mis-shapen due to cold weather. Scarlet Lace - Another frilly red. I got it last year as only 2 fans ands got only a couple of blooms. This year it is 5-6 fans and is giving me 2-3 blooms every day for the last two weeks. Songwriter - Its new in my garden this year and still a relatively small plant. Still, I've gotten huge deep rose-pink blooms. They ought to be wonderful next year. All of the pictures are from my garden, so blame my gardening techniques and my picture-taking if they don't look "right" to you. Larry